Various types of surgical instruments used to endoscopically treat tissue are known in the art, and are commonly used, for example, for closure of tissue or organs in transection, resection, anastomoses, for occlusion of organs in thoracic and abdominal procedures, and for electrosurgically fusing or sealing tissue.
One example of such a surgical instrument is a surgical stapling instrument. Typically, surgical stapling instruments include an end effector having an anvil assembly and a cartridge assembly for supporting an array of surgical staples, an approximation mechanism for approximating the cartridge and anvil assemblies, and a firing mechanism for ejecting the surgical staples from the cartridge assembly. Other examples of surgical instruments used to endoscopically treat or operate on tissue include surgical forceps, graspers and the like.
During laparoscopic or endoscopic surgical procedures, access to a surgical site is achieved through a small incision or through a narrow cannula inserted through a small entrance wound in a patient. Because of limited area available to access the surgical site and the large size of the surgical instrument, it may be somewhat involved to effectively remove the surgical instrument from the surgical site after surgery. Additionally, when employing a surgical robotic arm to perform surgical procedures, withdrawal of the surgical instrument from the robotic arm may pose an issue due to large size of the surgical instrument and/or the robustness of the surgical robotic arm.
Accordingly, a need exists for an improved surgical instrument, which can be selectively reduced in overall length to occupy less space and to increase ease of maneuverability during insertion and withdrawal from a surgical site.